Syria: US and Turkey meet to hasten Bashar al-Assad's end

Turkish and US officials have begun their first "operational planning"
meeting aimed at bringing about the demise of Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad's embattled regime, as heavy fighting continued in Damascus and
Aleppo.

A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad burns during clashes between rebels and Syrian troops in the city center of Selehattin, near AleppoPhoto: BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images

10:24AM BST 23 Aug 2012

The meeting is expected to coordinate military, intelligence and political responses to the crisis in Syria where a deadly crackdown on peaceful protests that began in March 2011 has according to activists claimed more than 23,000 lives.

The officials are also due to discuss contingency plans in the case of potential threats including a chemical attack by the regime in Damascus which Washington has called a "red line".

Turkish foreign ministry deputy under-secretary Halit Cevik and US ambassador Elisabeth Jones are leading the delegations made up of intelligence agents, military officials and diplomats at the meeting in Ankara, a Turkish foreign ministry source said.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Turkey's foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced their plans for such a mechanism to hasten the end of President Bashar al-Assad's regime on August 11.

The meeting comes after David Cameron and President Barack Obama warned Syria that any movement or usage of its chemical weapons would change their perspective on how to respond to the conflict.

A chemical attack would also trigger a refugee influx to neighbouring countries including Turkey which has already received more than 70,000 Syrians.

On Monday, Mr Davutoglu said Turkey can handle no more than 100,000 Syrian refugees and has proposed setting up a UN buffer zone inside Syria to shelter them.

The exodus of refugees to Turkey has intensified recently as a result of a Syrian army offensive and fighting in the northern city of Aleppo between regime forces and rebels.

The growing flow of refugees has raised fears of a repeat of the 1991 Gulf War, when half a million Iraqi Kurds massed along the common border.

The threat of armed groups including the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and al-Qaeda which could exploit a power vacuum in Syria is also expected to figure high on the agenda of the Ankara meeting.

In Istanbul, Mrs Clinton had said she shared "Turkey's determination that Syria must not become a haven for PKK terorrists whether now or after the departure of the Assad regime".